Tales of the Amalgam'verse: First Friend
by Tarbtano
Summary: 1993, the future Godzilla Junior is being housed in a Kyoto Institute, cared for by Dr. Azusa Gojo. While gentle as a lamb, Azusa worries he needs more socialization, especially after having discovered his sapience. At the same institute, a lonely little girl named Io Shinoda fails to bond well with the other school children. But that just might change soon.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: In this continuity, the psychics from the Heisei Godzilla films and mutants from Final Wars are retconned to being the hybrid children of the humans and the Mysterian xilians whom came to this world in the 1950s. So characters like Miki Saegusa are half-human hybrids. Also text with  
-...- are thoughts  
-"..."- are telepathy**

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Kyoto Institute of Biotechnics, 1993  
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"All right children, it's time we headed back to the dormitory for the afternoon lesson, the Baby will still be here for us to visit next week," A young woman in a simple dress suit and bob hairstyle noted with a click of her heels.

The dozen or so children, between the ages of ten and fifteen, mumbled in protest. At first glance they seemed to be a normal group of tots to early teenagers, but further inspection would reveal that many of them had some more unusual features. Monochrome hair that ranged from the darkest blacks to the brightest whites, skin that could be either normal hues or any shade of gray, and depending on their epidermis coloration, many of them had dark veins on their cheeks and under their eyes that went all the way down to the throats. The offspring of intermarriage between humanity and the would-be invaders from the 1950s, the Mysterians. While some of the children exhibited greater physicality and were often offered enrollment in the G-Force M Soldier unit, a sizable portion of such unions produced ones with bolstered mental capabilities. Psychics. And it was to a primary school in Kyoto that such gifted children were sent. It was a relative win-win situation for all parties.

G-Force got to keep tabs on most of the up and coming psychics, on the lookout for any potential abuses of power, and the children were given teachings by Mysterian and older hybrid personnel on how to better control their abilities while also being offered potential paths to work in G-Force or affiliated groups like C.C.I.

One such instructor for the younger children was one of the earlier hybrids to be born, who was currently chuckling as she opened the automatic doors leading in and out of the paddock room.

"Ah ah, none of the sass," Miki Saegusa quipped as she worked to herd the children out, "Don't forget to thank Ms. Gojo for the presentation."

The children all turned about and bowed to a slightly older woman dressed in a set of dirtied boots, khaki pants, and shirt.

"Thank you for the presentation, Madam Gojo!"

Azusa Gojo chuckled and nodded to the group, bowing back.

"Thank you all for visiting!" the young biologist quipped and waved to the children as they started to file out with Miki.

In some ways, Miki and Azusa's jobs weren't all that different. Kyoto's Biotechnics Institute took care of unusual children of more than just the human kind. A happy warbling behind her and the resulting grins on the psychic children told her the baby dinosaur she'd been taking care of was among those displeased to see the visiting field trip end. Azusa did momentarily pause when her observant eye counted twelve attending children when she thought she had counted a Baker's dozen entering.

Writing it off momentarily at either over-counting or just forgetting if one had run off to the bathroom, she turned and went back to her work.

"Madam Gojo... I'm twenty-five," she muttered to herself, briefly contemplating her reflection to see if she somehow looked a lot older in this attire.

The baby Godzillasaurus chirped as he approached his surrogate mother, who smiled and patted his head through the cage bars before going over towards the haystacks to bring some more in to replace old nesting material.

But Azusa's observation skills were always very sharp even when on the task. The odd sensation of being watched never left her and out of the very periphery of her vision, she noticed a little pale slip of hair poking out from behind the opened hallway door. Pulling up her notepad and hiding a smirk, she pretended to never notice anything while jotting down the behavioral observations of the field trip. The way the little bit of hair, which seem to be the end of a pigtail, slightly shifted up and down and that tiny glint of what she suspected was an eye hiding in the shadows of the door told her somebody really didn't want the field trip to be over just yet.

Still pretending to not notice anything, Azusa put the notepad aside and turned around to grab some hay tufts. Hefting them onto her shoulders, she'd just managed to lob two over the fence when her charge started chirping loudly.

Already privy to what had gotten his attention she still feigned ignorance.

"Oh don't get so mouthy, lunch will be on soon," Azusa groaned as she stretched out her back and stealthily throw a glance back towards the door.

Now the pigtails were sticking out either side of a potted plant fixture.

Figuring she'd humor the child, as no doubt Miki would notice somebody missing and be back soon, Azusa walked right past the plant and ignored the tiny sounds of rapid shifting and little footsteps circling around the other side. Putting her back and a good eight meters to the plant, Azusa typed at the climate control monitors to adjust the humidity and temperature of the chamber. Working at them for a good while and hearing a loud chirping coming from the dinosaur, Azusa checked her watch and noted Miki wasn't back yet.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, deciding it was time to stop joking around. She turned about as she spoke up, "Alright young lady, you don't want to miss your-"

Her last syllable paused in midair when she saw the place she was sure the little girl had been behind her back and in front of a very eager dinosaur, was completely empty.

"-...class?" raising her brow, Azusa glanced about the room to try and see if the little one was hiding somewhere she had suspected. But between the fact the little girl didn't seem particularly good at hiding behind anything on account of her wide hairstyle and the limited places she could be in the room, all options were quickly exhausted.

"Where?..." Azusa whispered to herself as she paced away from the computers to further investigate.

She couldn't have gone inside the enclosure. Her fitting between the bars was impossible, and given the heights at which Azusa had seen her hair, there was no way she could have been tall enough to vault herself over. Scratching at her scalp and flicking her braided pigtails behind her head, she stood with a hand on her chin as she surveyed the paddock room.

Her eyes never found the girl, but she did notice something slightly amiss with the floor in one particular spot. Both the fact the dinosaur was looking at it intently with a tilt of his head, and a slight blurriness across several square feet of floor. It wasn't anything significant, almost like looking in a lens that has fingerprint smudge on it, but how the light was reacting to the spot seemed amiss. That and she could hear a subtle chiming noise in the back of her head between her ears.

Azusa pursed her lips and approached, thinking she could hear somebody breathing as she got closer to the spot. That was when the doors to the room opened again and a slightly perturbed Miki stormed in. The hybrid's typically very human-like appearance faltered when dark veins became visible across her face and throat.

"Io, that's enough!"

Azusa blinked rapidly, the sensation in the back of her head lifting. Like a veil on top of her being yanked away, or more accurately her mental projection being canceled out by the much more experienced hybrid, the little girl became blatantly visible standing directly in front of Azusa while halfway into a tiptoeing sneaky step.

Io Shinoda paused but quickly realized the situation she was in and didn't try to flee. Azusa looked her over for a moment but found she couldn't quite put the little one to exact memory other than maybe vaguely seeing her in the back of the group once or twice in the field trip. She seemed a lot younger than some of the other kids, not to mention shorter but that might've been on account of age. Io lowered her head, her pale bangs hiding her face as her pigtails drooped to give her an extremely melancholy demeanor.

Miki sighed, canceling out her abilities and pacing forward to gently take Io by the hand.

With a sheepish grin, she looked to Azusa and rubbed the back of her own head, "So sorry about that, perception alteration-"

Her gaze didn't become harsh per se, but a bit sterner when she looked down at Io, "-something she knows she shouldn't be doing to people. Sorry to disturb you, Miss Gojo."

They bowed and hurried out of the room before Azusa could even say anything.

It was hours later and towards the end of the day, having just put in an extra amount of hay for the nest just in case Kazuma tried to impress her with his machinery again, given last time ended in them crashing his latest flying contraption into the previous nest, that Azusa found herself with another pair of visitors. She perked her brow when she recognized the younger of the two approaching.

Io Shinoda, still in her school uniform and now standing beside a man whom even of average height made her look absolutely tiny, kept her brow low as she approached behind her company. The man was extremely tired looking, visible bags under his eyes and his hair scattered about in a wild mess. He might've cleaned up a bit nicer but given he looked like he only had all of five minutes to act, definitely not enough to shave off the stubble rolling across his chin and jawline, much less fully fix up the suit and jacket he was wearing.

"Yugi Shinoda," the man addressed himself as such while in the middle of a very frantic bow after stopping about three meters away from Azusa. He motioned to the girl, "My daughter would like to give you something regarding what happened earlier."

His facial expression showed more fear and worry then genuine anger thankfully. Io Shinoda paced forward ahead of her father and now Azusa could see that she was holding something.

Io bowed to the still dumbstruck biologist, "... I am sorry for my actions earlier today Ms. Gojo madam ma'am-"

The way she said it sounded like she was reading off a script, "I swear not to act like that again towards you-"

"Iiioooo," Yugi grumbled.

Io shrugged, "-not to anyone again at all. Please accept my humblest apologies."

Azusa took in the sight when Io presented a very lovely made bento box, before sighing and returning the bow.

"Thank you very much, young lady. It was a lovely trick."

Io perked up slightly and Yugi cringed with an awkward chuckle, "Ehe, one I hope she doesn't put much practice in… It's not exactly smiled upon to abuse one's powers on others without them knowing."

Azusa crouched down regardless and accepted the box. When she and Io locked gazes the biologist tried to look as friendly as she could with a beaming smile before reaching out to pat the little girl's head. Her smile soon turned into a frown when Io quickly shied away and power walked to the back of the room. Yugi shrugged, pacing up to Azusa with a knowing expression.

"Don't let it get you down," he muttered, "Io's... Not very social."

Azusa sighed, but still couldn't quite banish the frown as she looked Yugi over and recognized the tag poking out of one of his pockets.

Azusa pointed to it, "Cellular biology wing, right? I think I remember you from some of the meetings. Listen, please don't be too upset with her. She's very young and I think she was just worried about leaving me alone with the dinosaur."

Yugi raised an eyebrow, "Worried?"

"Well, given she stayed behind to watch me."

"Would have thought she had seen you around the little tyke enough during the field trip to know not to," Yugi muttered while nodding towards the enclosure and its occupant who was looking at the procession curiously, "Just about everyone in Kyoto knows he's gentle as a lamb."

Azusa pursed her lips for a moment before motioning with her hand for Yugi to follow her. Together they walked over to a more distant side of the enclosure before Azusa turned back around.

"I remember all the children in the trip prominently but her, I think she was hiding behind Miki or lurking in the background the whole time."

Yugi's frown sunk even lower as Azusa continued on.

"Never saw her near the other children when they gathered around close to the fences. When I called over Baby, she never got anywhere near them or anyone. I think she's scared of him."

Azusa looked over to her right to see the baby Godzillasaurus looking back at her from the other side of the perimeter fence, tilting his head curiously. With her theory in mind, she was glad he had his attention on her and Yugi and not Io.

But that soon started to change when the dinosaur sniffs at the air and started to move away from them and towards the other side of the enclosure. Azusa followed his line of sight and saw he was heading directly towards Io, who was pressed up against the back wall, sitting on a bench oblivious to everything else. Before she could move past Yugi and try to stop her charge from surprising and giving Io a panic attack, Yugi got in front of her.

"Not quite that actually," Yugi shrugged and rubbed at the back of his head, "given her drawing books are almost nothing but him, I'd say she's pretty interested in the young Godzillasaur. She keeps scribbles and notes on him like a project. It's other children who are the issue."

Azusa relaxed somewhat but couldn't fully banish her frown when she saw Io draw up her legs and hug her knees to rest her chin on them. Yugi shared the somber expression.

"Io… Doesn't do well with others. I tried my best with her but she's my first and I couldn't profess to know that much about raising psychic children. She was alone a lot before a year ago, having then been enrolled here."

Azusa remembered the general ages and heights for the field trip. Io would be the shortest by a long shot.

"She seems younger than most of the other children."

"Yeah, eight years as of last month," Yugi shrugged his shoulders, "I was already working here and thought it'd be better if she was around other kids and I could be close by so I got her enrolled in Psychic care and research early. She seemed to like the idea, always was a sharp one; but didn't seem to stick the way I liked it to."

"And her mother?"

Azusa didn't realize how much her innocent question bit and stung until she saw Yugi visibly flinch up. Before she could take it back, however, Yugi was already fishing out his wallet. Pulling free a small picture that had been folded up to fit, he spread it out to reveal it. The image showed a woman sitting in a hospital room with several machines of both Terran and Alien design tucked into the corners. She was stunningly beautiful by even human standards despite being a Mysterian with extremely dark eyes sporting black sclera and prominent facial veins. Her hair was long, likely hip length, white as snow. Dressed in a hospital gown with a lab coat thrown over a chair, her soft smile and slightly swollen belly gave her an unprecedented glow.

"My wife, Asuka Shinoda."

Azusa couldn't help but tilt her head slightly at the very human sounding name. As she began to ponder small speculation and mental math if this meant Io's mother was also a hybrid, Yugi picked up on it and chuckled nostalgically.

"Hehe, Asuka. She insisted on a name from Terra even before we met… she always was an odd-one-out... Io takes a lot after her and sometimes I wonder if that's a good thing. Asuka would have loved it but given her behavior…"

Azusa looked up at him and finished his sentence with a slight grimace, "She sticks out from the other children even more."

Yugi nodded slightly, "A lot of the other children have things like two extended families, presentations on what their Mysterian ancestors did on their ships, sometimes even two names like what Miki has. I.. couldn't give her any of that... Last month they had a Bring-Your-Parent-To-Class day and that just made it more obvious when all the students recognized the eccentric biologist from their lab field trip who gave a speech with his suit on backward."

Azusa would've laughed if she wasn't grimacing, remembering some gossip about that field trip and now realizing 'Dr. BackFront' was standing in front of her.

She patted him on the shoulder, "Hey, don't beat yourself up. Parenting ain't easy. Singles even more so."

Yugi cringed, "Well I wing alone the best I can. Scatterbrain like me can forget to put my socks on the right feet..."

Azusa shrugged and finally chuckled with the hope of alleviating some of the dourness, "I'd buy it. Your shirt's on backward this time."

Yugi's eyes widened and he glanced down to finally realize what she was talking about. Swearing under his breath he fidgeted to try and fix it but soon came to the realization he'd probably have to take his whole suit jacket off to do so and resigned himself to it with a groan.

"Dumb mess. Would take a gal from a spaceship to like me."

"Heeeey," Azusa jokingly punched him in the shoulder, "You never know what the future holds. No one's to say it happens just once."

Somewhere, miles away in Tokyo, a young journalist photographer named Yuki Ichinose sneezed in the middle of an equipment set up. Springing up, a red-headed intern with the name label 'Tachibana' handed Yuki a tissue.

Yuki sniffled and spoke nasally, "Thanks Yuri, don't know what came over me."

Yugi paused for a moment as he got the weirdest sensation, and could be forgiven for reading it slightly wrong. He glanced over at Azusa and muttered.

"... Do you like grilled or sushi? I ask because Io's coming and hope it be best it could be."

Azusa snickered and shook her head, "Sorry, I already have a date."

Yugi thankfully caught her jesting mood and could tell it was nothing harsh, chuckling, "Darn, and I was hoping so I can get close enough to study your pet dino's G-cells."

"There are about 15 levels of illegal right there after 1989."

Yugi groaned, "Yes yes, I know. Biollante Incident, don't remind me... Yeesh, Asuka was chomping at the bit to get the project until they went with Shirigami."

"Well, no Biollante then if she got the job?"

Yugi gave her a wide-eyed, grimacing, chuckling shake of the head, "Hehe noooo. Knowing her, she'd have used a venus fly trap instead of a rose. Always was a risk-taker."

"Kinda like Io?"

Yugi sighed and nodded as he watched his daughter, who seemed to perk up slightly when she saw the foliage in the enclosure nearest to her starting to rustle.

"Yeah… she'd have loved that about her, though it worries me sometimes… Again, just wanted to apologize."

Azusa shook her head and waved him off, "No need. Actually was really impressed to see the stunt she pulled off."

"Her little disappearing act where she projects something on top of herself in someone's head?" Yugi chuckled, "Not quite sure how she learned how to do that. She first managed to pull it off while still in the crib and gave me a heart attack checking every room in the apartment when she decided to play peekaboo with the copied image of her blanket. Used it to get in all sorts of trouble since."

"Well, if trouble's the issue, maybe she just needs an outlet."

"At her age?"

"Some children get an early start on such things-"

Azusa saw how Io's eyes widened and her head perked up when a scaly head poked out of the shrubs and looked upon the little girl with red and yellow eyes. One could of swore they just presented Io with the most adorable puppy in the world given her expression compared to how most girls her age would react.

"-… Yugi, what are your work hours?"

Yugi cringed, "Longer than I would like. 9 to 7."

"So got some hours between the school getting out and you leaving?"

"Y-Yes," Yugi muttered with a bit of shame in his tone, "Miki or the neighbors watch her for me usually but…"

Azusa watched on with a beaming smile and started to approach when she saw Io get coaxed off her bench seat by the little dinosaurs' cooing and eagerly meet him on the other side of the fence.

"I have an idea," Azusa hummed.

Soon the biologist was coming up beside Io and crouching down to her level.

"Hey," she whispered.

Io looked over at her and jolted back into startled surprise. She put her hands up and in an instant she seemed to phase out of existence, replaced with a piece of wall. The chiming was back within Azusa's head, but now she just rolled her eyes at it. Reaching into the bag on her back, she drew out a large flower and held out the stem in front of her.

"He really likes these, how about you give it to him?"

The 'wall' stayed there for a moment before slowly moving and flickering away. Io Shinoda returned to view and looked between Azusa, the flower, and the dinosaur. Her little hand gently gripped the stem and she turned to face the reptile. After a few moments of looking up and down, she looked over to Azusa and saw her father standing behind them. Seeing Yugi was present and knowing it was safe with this woman like it was with Ms. Miki, Io held her arms up.

Her tiny voice was barely above a whisper, "I can't reach…"

Azusa beamed, gently taking the little girl up into her arms and supporting her.

"Now, let him come to you, don't move or make a lot of noise."

She stood beside the fence and nodded to Yugi.

"Codes 541864," Azusa quipped with a glance towards the keycode controlling the gate.

Yugi caught onto her train of thought and plan, sighing and smiling to himself despite some worry as he punched the key in and nudged the door open after the latch clicked off. Azusa stepped inside and looked at the curious dinosaur.

"Oookay, oookay, easy does it," the baby started to approach causing a slight stillness in breath for both Azusa and Yugi.

Knowledge that the reptilian was docile was well known and Azusa had been alone with him in the enclosure many times with her back turned. But he was still the size of a couch and hadn't been around children without a fence in the way before, so eyes were wary in case an accident happened. But thankfully, the dinosaur's caution and curiosity spurred it to move slowly.

Stopping a short distance away from his mother and the tiny human hatchling, the baby sniffled the air and eyed the tasty looking blossom the hatchling was holding. He warbled wantingly and waited for his mother's cue, a bit wary at having someone new in his enclosure that wasn't that nice Kazuma male-man that gave him burgers or donuts behind his mother's back.

But the hatchling with pretty white hair seemed to perk up at his call and soon held out the blossom to him. The baby wiggled in joy and paced over, soon feeling the delicious sweet-tartness of the petals in his mouth when he chomped down onto them.

Azusa was worried that Io would startle or yelp when the baby unexpectedly chomped down on the flower, flashing serrated teeth and large fangs less than a hand's breadth from her face. Instead, she felt the girl rise up and suck in a breath in such a manner she knew Io had stars in her eyes. Even more so when the dinosaur finished scarfing down the flower and leaned in to sniff for more, not minding Io eagerly petting and stroking him. He even let out a soft series of clicks, like a purr, when she scratched behind his ears and ran her fingers between his scutes.

Azusa beamed and smirked, "So, Io. I've got a lot to do around here, how'd you like to come here after school for a few hours?"

Io's head whirled around to stare into her with a widened expression of pure shock.

Azusa tilted her head, "Can do your work, draw some, and help keep our friend here company while giving me a hand."

The baby Godzillasaurus moved in and nuzzled the human-hatchling, both to check on her and see if she had any more flowers. The hatchling, Io Shinoda, squealed with delight and hugged his muzzle. She felt a thought come from the face pressed up against her, a question as to who she was.

Io beamed and projected her answer to the dinosaur, -"I'm Io! Your new friend!"-

The saurian repeated the word, grasping it and wagging his tail as he repeated it. Io giggled. She'd correct him later that 'Io NewFriend' was not her name.

Yugi Shinoda let out a deep sigh of relief, hoping this just might work. If anything, he hoped Asuka could see their daughter right now. It had been a long time since Io smiled this widely.

And so, two young souls destined for great journeys started their treks with each other at their side. Kyoto Institute would never soon forget the havoc of which they'd bring…

================  
Two Months Later  
================

Io Shinoda stood up on her tippy toes, pointing a meter stick she'd borrowed from her classroom at the keypad. After tapping at the object a few times to no avail, she grumbled and turned to the large form looking at her behind the fence.

-"It's no good. Can't hit the keys hard enough. Can you reach?"-

A clawed hand of the recently named Junior went through the bars, feeling around before tapping at the keypad with a taloned digit. Io grinned mischievously, rubbing her hands together.

-"Pewfect! Now move it up… up.. Aaaand push!"-

The pushed numbers slowly appeared on the keypad's screen. 5...4…..1...8….6….4. The gate clicked and Io pulled it open.

-"Right, like we practiced now!"-

Junior lowered himself as far as he could, waiting for the little weight to climb onto his shoulders and collar before rising up. Io grinned and held onto her friend's scutes and jokingly kicked his collar with her heel.

-"Giddy-up!"-


	2. Chapter 2

**Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron**

The transformation was visible in a freeze-frame. A week ago, Io Shinoda was the definition of a wallflower. Never moving faster than a slow walk, head usually down and looking aside, only perking up when her father finally got out from work to spend a few hours with her in the evening. Even her attempts at a new look by doing her hair up in twintails to keep a lot of it out of her face didn't help, one could swear the hair was wilting from depression.

Now though? Near total opposite. The eight year old was either jogging through the halls or practically skipping with her backpack hopping and bobbing on her back with every step. Her twintails were brighter and perked up in a manner that might recall a rabbit's ears. And the subtle beaming on her face never subsided. Happy as can be was an adequate description.

Skipping past several core course of laboratories and research wings heading away from the ESP school, she closed in on the far end of the hallway where a powerful-looking man was standing. Strong-eyed, broad-shouldered, and stiff-backed, Lt. Koji Shinjo fit the image of a model soldier in G-Force with a lot of experience in the field even before joining, have training and deployment with the US forces before being scouted. Not once did his gaze waver away from looking down the hall as he stood at attention with a taser on his hip and rifle slung across his back.

When Io skipped up to him, she barely even came up halfway between his kneecaps and his hip.

"I'm hereee!" she yipped happily.

Koji didn't look down on her and instead stood at attention with only an occasional blink in his eyes to indicate he wasn't just a statue. Io put her feet together and put her hands at her sides as she stood in front of them. The beaming on her face subsided into a stoic, serious expression bordering on a frown, that closely emulated his own. Bowing respectfully, she rose back up and with a hand raised her brow in a salute, she clicked her heels together and barked.

"Io Shinoda, reporting for assistant duties!"

Lt. Yugi's stiff gaze came upon her with a shift in his eyes, before raising his own hand in a mild salute with the edge of his lips curling up into a smirk. He returned a half bow with a chuckle in his voice.

"Welcome back Young Miss Shinoda."

Giggling and waving as the nice Mr. Shinjo tapped in the security code to let her through the access doors, Io skipped back inside and was soon greeted to the familiar sight of a large, forested paddock surrounded by a perimeter fence with several computers and animal-care utility scattered around the room. Breathing in the humid, warmer air which was a product of the artificial waterfall as well as the greenhouse roof, Io slung her backpack off and onto a bench and soon set upon trying to find her mentor.

"I'm here, Gojo-sensei!"

Her cheery greeting however was met with silence aside from the noise of running water. Tilting her head and not seeing Azusa Gojo tapping away at one of the computers or caring for their charge, Io jogged along the perimeter of the fencing to circle around the paddock and see if Azusa was just on the other side. She found herself running on a loop with not a single sign of the biologist in sight. Instead a low warbling responded to her. Wobbling out from the foliage, the Godzillasaurus chirped to his friend, but also seemed to be at the same task Io was given how much he was looking around.

Io tilted her head and projected her thoughts to the saurian.

_-"She's not in there with you?"-_

The dinosaur clicked his jaws twice, something she'd figured out alongside his thoughts meant 'No'. His demeanor was not the usual, his eyelids were hanging low and quiet whimpering was audible as he started fidgeting his hands together. Io shared the frown and reached through the fence towards him, the dinosaur lowering down and putting his forehead to her hand so she could stroke him.

_-"Had another nightmare of that Gabara-boogeyman, huh?"-_

The saurian chirped in affirmation. The doors to the paddock room slid open with a metallic whirl and both youngsters perked up. And while seeing the kindly face walking in wasn't necessarily a bad sight, they were both hoping it would've been Azusa.

With a wide face and very bushy eyebrows, the G-force personnel was an eccentric engineer with a heavy emphasis on the "eccentric", by the handle of Kazuma Aoki. While not necessarily a biologist, paleontology was a big interest of his so Kazuma liked four things to various degrees: Repairing mecha, building his own devices, pterosaurs, and trying to get a date with Azusa. Well, at least a legitimate date given he wasn't quite sure his attempts to take the smart, tough, and by all accounts admirable to him biologist for a spin in his robotic _Pteranodon_ counted. Particularly given that said attempt ended in a crash landing inside the dinosaur's nest. Couldn't be blamed too much though, he was no Don Juan and said dinosaur seemed to like him well enough. Any suggestions of bribery by him slipping the young saurian hamburgers, sushi, and doughnuts behind Azusa's back were lies and slander.

Still, as bummed as he was at not seeing Azusa, he hid it better than the kids for their sakes.

"Heyhey! My two favorite tykes," the engineer cheerfully chuckled as he paced over and patted the both of them, "Why the long faces?"

Io stuck her tongue out slightly when he pet her but kept otherwise mostly respectful, "He had a bad dream and wants to see Gojo-sensei."

Kazuma frowned and shrugged, petting the baby dinosaur a bit more, "He tell you that with your telepathy?"

Io nodded, spurring Kazuma to shook his head and scratch the saurian behind the ears, "Poor little guy. I heard there was a meeting with Dr. Omae earlier but wasn't sure if she went. She'll be occupied for another hour or so."

Before he could see or risk his heart taking the sight of two wilting tykes, Kazuma motioned for Io to follow him.

"Come on, hows about we give Azusa a hand then."

Io tilted her head and following along when Kazuma walked towards the paddock door.

"How so?"

"I know she keeps a checklist of things to do, so we'll lighten her load," he flashed Io a smirk and nod, "You keep the big-little guy happy and I'll see what I can do about upkeep; it's my break hour."

To his surprise as soon as he punched the gate code open, something Io was keen to watch and memorize, Io ran quickly inside around his legs but stopped soon after to turn around and face him.

"Team," she quipped while holding her little hand out.

Kazuma couldn't fight a chuckle as he brokered the deal with the eight year old, taking her tiny hand to shake it, "Team. Hop to it cadet."

Io hardened her face in a way he couldn't quite be sure was uncanny for someone her size and age, or adorable for the same reason, and saluted before jogging off to the dinosaur. Kazuma shrugged his shoulders while seeing to Azusa's checklist, wondering how long she's been around Lt. Koji to nail that impersonation so well.

Unfortunately Io's ideas on how to entertain another glum kid off the top of her head were about as diverse as her ideas on how to amuse a puppy dog. Which given she had no human friends her age and never had a pet, was about zero. Usually Azusa suggested things for them to do like hide and seek or tag, and typically the dinosaur was already psyched up when she played with him like that. So, best idea was to wing it.

The Godzillasaurus perked up at motion in front of his face, snapping him out of a stupor from fear and longing to have her mother around to keep the dreams away. His eyes instantly trained upon the stick being waggled in the air by Io. He tilted his head and chirped, not sure what his playmate in the human hatchling was doing. Any time he'd seen humans pick up sticks it was to put them aside or in those weird containers to take them away and replace them, "litter" he thought he heard his mother call it. But some other instincts were starting to kick in as he followed the waving stick with his head movements.

"Want the stick? Want it?" Io muttered as she waggled the half meter branch between her fingers.

Her compatriot chirped in answer and looked to all the sticks around them with confusion as to why he'd want another. Her cheeks puffed up.

_-"Yes you're supposed to want to stick, don't ask me why!"-_

Kazuma looked up from the pump apparatus connected to the waterfall, wiping some sweat from his brow after replacing the pump.

_-Yeesh, if Azusa listing things like this constantly I'm gonna have to double my training in the Garuda courses to keep up!... Now what are those two up to?-_

His thoughts were soon given an answer when he saw Io lob a large stick off to the dinosaur's side, only for the dinosaur to catch it in a surprisingly dexterous hand and toss it back. After fumbling with it in her arms, she managed to catch it and returned it. The sight of an eight-year-old girl playing catch with a couch-sized saurian was a surreal one to be sure, but evidently not exactly what Io had in mind. Her eyes narrowed and her dark facial veins became a lot more visible against her chalky pale skin.

That was the sight Kazuma took longer to get used to than that of his perspective girlfriend having a dinosaur in her care. The Mysterians looked human, mostly human. The larger eyes, flatter noses, and grayscale coloration were odd enough, but the inky black veins across their cheeks, circling their eyes, going past her lips and down their throat while also showing up on their inner legs and wrists, were uncanny-looking. While many of the hybrids looked a lot more human to various degrees, it tended to be that they either looked almost entirely human with some odd proportions, or they looked almost entirely like their alien parent but with more human proportions. But any of the psychic ones using their mental powers or the mutants getting an adrenaline rush always had those veins visible regardless of how human they looked otherwise.

He'd gotten used to it and he certainly didn't use it to judge, but it always was an odd sight, especially on someone who didn't come up to past his hips.

Though his more analytical mind was curious as to what exactly Io was doing. She didn't seem to be lifting anything up off the ground or projecting an image so mental suggestion or telekinesis were out. Telepathy maybe? Probable given Miki told him once that power tended to come easiest to the children. And given he was the only other soul in the room and didn't get a voice in his head, he could presume it was aimed at the dinosaur.

"Huh, I wonder what they're saying," Kazuma's whisper was cut off by Io's voice shouting into his head in obvious frustration as she waved her arms up and down in a small tantrum.

_-"No you big doofus! You let it fall and then pick it up! It's fetch not catch!"-_

The dinosaur walked forward as Io wave the stick up and down in her arm movements, lurching forward and chomping down on the branch. Not hard enough to break it, but enough it stopped the movements cold as Io couldn't wretch it free from his jaws.

_-"No no no! Not yet! You grab it after I throw it, after I throw it! Let go!"-_

But her companion wasn't yielding, grunting to himself and pulling his head to the side with his neck. Io dug her heels in and kicked at the ground to try and win the pulling contest. But in the competition between a 20 kilogram girl wearing sneakers and a 420 kilogram dinosaur with large claws to grip the simulated forest floor for traction, it was no illusion who was winning even as both tykes absolutely refused to let go. Soon Io was getting towed across the paddock by a backpedaling dinosaur, cutting discolored trenches into the leaf litter and hay with her heels while shouting commands that turned to requests that turned to pleas for him to let go and stop pulling her.

Until she heard a happy wattle from the saurian. Io opened her previously closed and grimacing eyes and beheld the surprise. Her friend had a visible beam across his muzzle, tail wagging behind him as he continued to backpedal into a loop around the back of the waterfall. His eyes were practically gleaming and his entire mood was perkier than before. Happier than before.

And it was infectious.

Putting her heels together in her impromptu hay-skiing act, Io giggled and gripped the branch.

"Hehe! Like the snow dogs! Mush! Mush!"

His pacing increased in speed and he made a turn around the rocky feature. Unfortunately he was cackling too loudly to notice two things. One, his feet had stepped over a change in the floor space which went from dry hay and leaves to chilled water. Secondly was Io's loud squealing when she opened her eyes and saw where they were heading. Right for the pool under the waterfall.

Her twintails stuck up on end like a pair of giant surprised ears and her voice as well as eyes spazzed out.

"NO NO NO! NOT THERE YOU DUMMY WAAA!"

Due to her surprise of being yanked forward when the dinosaur's foot went over a underwater step and into deeper water which caused him to tumble backwards, as well as fear of where her momentum might take her after being pulled off her feet, Io didn't let go of the branch. In the span of a second they both went from dry and at sea level to several feet below it and soaked to the bone.

A pair of clawed hands reached out of the crystal clear waters and gripped the edge of the pool, hauling their owner up. A soaked Io perched atop his head, the dinosaur shook himself slightly while keeping his end of the snapped off half of the branch in his mouth. Io gripped his brow and her own, wobbling from vertigo she tried to ebb away. Shaking her head briefly, stopping as it only resulted in her slapping herself in the face with one of her twintails, Io grumbled and pried the length of wet hair out of her face.

"Blech!" she spat, coughing and sticking her tongue out, "I think I swallowed some of the pool water."

There was a chirp below her and her face deadpanned.

_-"Yes I know you drink it too but my papa said not I'm not supposed to drink pool water! I did that once and he got all spooked."-_

The dinosaur's head shot up a few inches in surprise and concern, warbling the name of his caretaker in his tongue. Io shrugged and patted his nose.

_-"No no no, I'm a girl and you're not. Little girls can't drink pool water, it's what my Papa said. You're not a girl, you're a boy so it's okay!"-_

Airtight logic to the hybrid.

Chuckling caught her attention and she saw Kazuma stepping into the enclosure with a wagon drawn behind him and a large towel slung over his shoulder.

"Hehe, you kids need a towel or are swimming hours not over yet?" He heckled before holding out his arms and hands to Io.

Io wrang out her twintails and took him up on that offer, soon throwing the towel over herself and set to buffering. She'd still be damp, but the water wasn't cold enough to worry about chills. Turning to her friend as he helped himself out of the pool, the little psychic took a few tries to swing the towel over her dinosaur companion's head, ineffectually sawing it back and forth to try and dry him off. To be honest in the warm sun and his smooth scales, he'd drip and air dry quicker than her efforts with the towel but that fact was lost on Io and Kazuma didn't feel like spoiling her prideful smirk at "completing" her task.

"Well, saw you two having a Tug-O-War with the branch and gave me an idea."

Io and the dinosaur both perked up as Kazuma turned to is wagon and pulled out a thick length of reinforced rope with some reinforcement tape wrappings.

"Lucky for you tykes I'm an engineer, so I solve practical problems. Made this for tying up my _Pteranodon_ flier and had a few... spare... meters, thought it'd be stronger than some branch," he noted with a smirk as he presented the toy, "Call it an upgrade."

Io gave her a wary look with one of her eyes partially closed and tilting her head, "Spaaare? You just happened to have this with you, or are you doing this to show off to Sensei Gojo more and have another invention nearby?"

Kazuma shrugged, "Hey, I deny nothing, but what kind of guy would I be to pass up helping a young lady?"

The G-Force engineer smirked and ruffed Io's hair a bit, ignoring her minor protest. Picking up on it, the dinosaur squeaked and started to nuzzle and sniffle at his friend's mane. Io hissed and held her twintails away from his prying snout and jaws. Io scrunched up her nose and lips.

_-"Hey don't you start now! Just grab an end of the rope, you dummy!"-_

Seeing the dinosaur being a quick study and picking up one end of the rope in his mouth, Kazuma moved behind the end Io was picking up and took hold of the cordage.

"Here, let me back a young lady u-"

The moment a third party entered the fray and changed sides, Io dropped her end of the rope and ran to the dinosaur's end, holding onto his tail.

"Team!" she chirped happily, earning a warble of content from the saurian as she shook his tail like a handshake and he wiggled said tail to return the gesture.

Kazuma jokingly deadpanned at the little girl, "Traitor."

He pulled as hard as he possibly could, and was promptly ripped off his footing and dragged across the paddock ground. Amidst cheers of victory from Io and saurian chirping as the dinosaur nudging his head curiously, Kazuma had only a single thought in his mind while picking himself back up.

Time to call in backup.

Azusa Gojo was well familiar with the seating arrangements of the institute's cafeteria, even if she didn't eat in their often and mostly just observed it as he was getting her food. Captain Pentecost and the rest of the high-tensioned Mechagodzilla's pilots on one table sitting quietly or conversing strategy, the MG and Garuda engineers on the next two tables but on opposite sides talking design specs, the M soldier wing cadets often in the midst of an arm wrestling contest or some show of bravado, and the biologists like her nose deep in their own projects while eating. There was one change to this pattern that was readily visible though.

Namely, she was almost the only one in the cafeteria. And the few remaining out of the usual two or three dozen were rapidly conversing before running off; one of which she saw pulling out her wallet.

Well, that was unusual. Enough so to check.

The paddock room was the opposite of the cafeteria in many ways, warm, humid, and usually having very few people aside from Azusa herself, her recent new assistant, and occasional colleagues who came to help. Now it was absolutely packed so much Azusa had to push herself to even seen the enclosure itself. The sight was surreal to say the least.

Her charge was holding onto a heavy duty rope with his teeth and hands, eagerly chirping as he tugged on it like a puppy would a rope toy. After kicking his feet into the earth for a purchase, he pulled back several meters of rope towards him and caused the trio of assorted engineers, soldiers, and pilots holding onto the other end of the rope to lose their footing. They yelped, crumbling over a boundary line scratched into the leaflitter.

"Aaaand that's 5-0," Kazuma called out while making another tick on a chalkboard that had been carted in.

Several groans and just as many fist-pumps and hushed cheers carried through the crowd as bets lost and won were passed around.

The owner of a pair of hands holding onto the rope behind the dinosaur cheered loudest, Io flashing a thumbs up to her Tug-O-War teammate, "Another for the win streak!"

One of the losing team shrugged and shot a joking glare to the audience as he motioned to Io, "Hey no fair! She's obviously doing all the work!"

The dinosaur grunted indignantly, causing the engineer to look over at him with slight bewilderment on her face.

"He heard that, imbecile," Io quipped as another team stepped forward to try their luck.

"Imbecile?" Azusa muttered in mild confusion, having never heard her say that word before.

Azusa tilted her head more before someone standing next to her nudged her shoulder with his.

"She just seemed to start saying it out of the blue and I'm not sure where she heard it," the refined, massive Captain Stacker Pentecost noted dryly, "I think it's become her new favorite word."

Azusa shrugged at stumbling into another weird day at the institute where grown men and woman tried to play tug of war with an eight year old and her best friend of a dinosaur. She eyed the money exchange and gave Pentecost a hopeful glance.

"Please tell me you're above this."

Pentecost said nothing and let the moment pass, before holding up several bills he stowed into his uniform's inner pocket, "Lt. Koji has a gambling problem. He's lost twice now."

A quartet of soldiers found themselves kissing the dirt. A similar number of cocky, young mutant cadets coaxed into trying by their superior got similar treatment, Kazuma noticing said superior cashing in a big bet and muttering something about a lesson in humility. Lt. Koji vindicated Pentecost's assessment in managing to get himself and five friends yanked into the waterfall pool, much to Io's jeers.

And now Kazuma was finding out how much peer pressure was a pain in the rear with him as the frontman of the last team of over half a dozen contestants. He caught a glimpse of Io Shinoda's gleaming eyes poking out from atop the dinosaur's beaming face, a predatory leer coming from the little girl spooking him more than the visage the fanged dinosaur had. She looked like Napoleon atop his steed.

_-Contestants. Right. More like Io's victims…-_

The saurian warbled to the familiar human and Kazuma shrugged into a chuckle, "Don't worry baby-dino, I knew who to bet on. I'll bring you a baker's dozen when this is over."

"This better not be a baker's dozen of donuts or sweets," a feminine voice quipped behind him.

Kazuma froze and slowly looked back to see Azusa stepping up to the rope while rolling up her sleeves, cocking an eyebrow at her suitor. Kazuma was red in the face and shut into silence promptly.

Io Shinoda giggled, holding onto the rope to give it a mighty tug as she stood on her friend's shoulders.

"Onward! To the pool-WOAH! Wait!" she squealed while almost losing her footing, clutching the scaly neck to avoid falling off and flailing her legs into the air, "That's the wrong way imbecile!"

Azusa and her team stumbled back onto their backs when the rope they heaved upon gave instantly. Plodding footsteps approach and Azusa's momentarily spinning vision was soon filled by a pair of beaming yellow eyes and the nuzzling of a scaly nose upon her cheek. The dinosaur had walked over the boundary line and thrown the match without a fight the moment he saw Azusa so he could greet her.

Miki smirked and innocently closed her eyes as she marked a dash on the chalkboard, "9-1, pay up folks."

Her beckoning hand was soon filled with multiple bills. She knew who to bet on the moment Azusa showed up.

The dinosaur ignored the light tapping on the back of his head, happily licking his mother's cheek while wagging his tail, oblivious to having just lost the match. With so many nice humans around and his mother here now, who could be angry?

"Ababpapa! Baby stop!" Azusa squawked as she kicked her legs and tried to get up, unable to resist patting her charge on the cheek and neck.

"That baby just cost me a lot over the past hour," Lt. Koji deadpanned, sprawled out behind Azusa and resting his cheek on his fist.

"Funny, baby gave me the opposite," his jeering compatriot quipped with a chuckle.

Lt. Koji shot him a glare, "Sato you traitor, we always bet together!"

"Yes, and I bet the opposite each time. Thanks baby," Lt. Sato cackled as he gave the dinosaur a thumbs up.

But amidst the bets, laughs, and jokes, Io Shinoda didn't join in. Not because she was repeatedly muttering the word 'baka' while repromending her teammate for bounding across the Tug-O-War line the moment he saw his mom, but because she kept hearing a word that gave her pause. She looked about, looked at her friend, mentally measured his size and looked even more baffled.

_-"... Why do they keep calling him Baby?!"-_

The next day was back to normal. A normal as life at a place that built giant mecha, super jets, housed alien-human hybrid schools, and a living non-avian dinosaur could be. In this case it was another day of faux normality that entailed an eight-year-old half-human sitting in a dinosaur nest with said dinosaur laying down across from her, looking to his friend's backpack with a curious stare.

Io pulled free several very large books of various widths and placed them along the hay, letting the saurian sniff at them.

_-"If I gotta learn, you gotta learn, and right now we need to learn you a- Hey stop that!"-_

She yanked the romance book out of the dinosaur's maw, the pages and cover catching on his teeth and are ripping half the contents out. Io groaned while her compatriot spat out several loose pages still stuck on his fangs, a visibly disgusted look on his face granted from the bad taste.

_-"Not for eating, you imbecile!"-_

She mentally snipped, looking at the room and book and tossing it over her shoulder.

_-"Okay, looks like we'll be skipping how to act around ladies. Not like it'll likely happen anyways. If you want to know what not to do, do just watch Mr. Kazuma."-_

She brought up another book and opened it, showing her friend the pages, words, and simple pictures. This one was meant for teaching children Japanese, Xilian, and English so the corresponding word from all three accompanied an illustration.

_-" As I was saying, I'm smart so I have to learn all this. And you're smart too, smarter than the adults think because they don't make you go to school. So it's up to me to fix that!"-_

And thankfully being psychic came with another big perk with language learning. As Io pointed to the picture and trained the curious dinosaur's gaze upon it and the words, she projected an image of the subject matter into his head so he would see it before him. It took some coaxing for him to understand that the image on the book wasn't something physically there, but a representation, though the psychic projections certainly helped after some initial surprise. The vacuum already picked up on at least a few words by hearing the adults say them before doing something involving it helped to build some context even if he didn't know the corresponding word.

Io pointed at a picture showing a person growing up, standard family, loudly distinguishing each word for each age stage.

_-"Baaaaby… Kiiid… Teeeen… Aduuult."-_

She tapped at each picture and was delighted to see the saurian following her direction. She pointed to the baby picture.

_-" The adults keep calling you this, but I'm pretty convinced you're actually this. At least in dinosaur years."-_

She pointed to the child. The dinosaur saw her pointing between himself and the child picture, thinking things through and nodding slowly, something he had seen the adult humans doing and picked up on. A clawed hand pointed to Io… And then pointed to the baby.

Io narrowed her eyes, _-"Baby? Who you calling a baby?! No I'm not a baby! I'm a kid! Eight and two-twelveths years old!"-_

The saurian blinked and shook his head side to side to indicate his height, and then held a hand over Io's head to point out how much shorter she was. A finger was then pointed to the child and then dragged over to the baby picture to show how much shorter they were in the lineup. The logic was sound enough.

Io fumed and viciously shook her head, _-"Not. A. Baby! And neither are you."-_

The dinosaur tilted his head and again indicated the height difference. Io quickly turn the page to just get away from the subject. After flipping through several more she came upon one of animals past and present. Thankfully they were all in the lineup with the human put in for scale. Io pointed to the man.

_-"See? Human, short. Dinosaur…"-_

Her finger dragged over to an illustration of a _Tyrannosaurus_, tapping on it before pointing at her compatriot.

_-"Can be biiig!"-_

Her friend chirped quietly, eyes moving across the page back and forth to distinguish the two forms. The _Tyrannosaurus_ didn't look exactly like him, but then again the human didn't look exactly like Io. It was close enough for him to grasp what she was saying, enough he didn't end up asking if the human was just a baby because the illustration was identical to the picture of an adult and even looked a bit like Mr. Aoki. But then his demeanor seemed to shift, both from pinpricks of fear as well as some confusion. He didn't say anything, but Io was able to see the image he was projecting in his mind and focusing on. One of Azusa and himself.

Io snapped her fingers to get him off the depressing and worrying train of thought, quickly flipping the pages the one showing a family. For a moment the dinosaur's confusion intensified when he understood at least some of the context before Io started explaining the words. The adult female parent and adult male parent looked like the hatchlin- the baby between them. Instinct already told him what an offspring was, but part of it was now conflicting with his imprinting. If Azusa with his parent, why was she human and he was a dinosaur?

_-"Mooother… Faaather…. Kiiid…"-_

The saurian chirped, listening but still confused to some extent. Io paused and pulled out a picture she had with her in her notebook, one of her and her father during her seventh birthday. It was just after she had gotten enrolled in the ESP school, but Yugi Shinoda had been so busy he wasn't able to give her a party away from work. So instead he and his coworkers worked together and managed to make one inside the biology lab. It would be a weird story for the other children to talk about how she got a birthday cake baked inside an incinerator. Still it was a happy occasion, even if she was the only child present surrounded by sleep deprived human and mysterian scientists in a pale lab.

Io smiled and pointed to the image of herself in the picture and that of her father, projecting an image of her sire to her friend to help further the context.

The dinosaur nodded, but the unease was still there. Even if Io was colored very different from her father, he could still see some similarities. A couple times he had met Yugi Shinoda and smelled them, he could even tell the man and Io were related because they smelled similar. He didn't have that with Azusa, and his eyes traveled to another picture in the book. One of the family with a pet dog along with other possessions. His clawed index finger pointed to the dog.

Io's lips flattened but she read out the word to him, _-"Pet. An animal a family owns as a friend."-_

Her heart nearly broke when her best friend pointed at himself and the word came back to her.

_-"... Pet?"-_

Even if he didn't fully understand the full concept of ownership or relationship dynamics, it was close enough to what he knew for him to understand that whatever people had with them they possessed, but it didn't possess them. 'My', 'Mine', and 'Yours' were words he was still grasping but was beginning to catch on to. If he took the shoe, but he still didn't know that word, off Azusa's and Kazuma's feet and she and Kazuma chased him down to get them back, Kazuma wasn't the one who put Azusa's shoe on his foot and Azusa didn't put his shoe on her foot. They each belonged to the like. And given the dog was pictured next to things like shirts, hats, toys, or shoes he was drawing the connection more between the canine and the property than between the people and the family.

Io hopped up and held his face, _-"No! No that's a bad imbecile, don't be one!"-_

The dinosaur stood up and whined still. Io ignored how her feet were dangling off the ground now, held tight onto his muzzle to look him dead in the eye. Teaching was a pain but she refused to let her friend hurt!

The little girl stubbornly pointed to a working Azusa manning a computer.

_-"She loves you, so she's your mother. No questions or you're the biggest imbecile evers!"-_

_-"But…"-_

Io pointed at his eyeball and scrunched up her face to look as imposing, or rather unintentionally adorable, as she could.

_-"She care for you?"-_

He nodded, causing Io to rise and fall while dangling off the ground; though neither noticed.

_-"She make you happy?"-_

_-"Since I hatchling and egg. I imprint."-_

He was still getting used to sentence structure but Io knew how to listen to him well enough.

_-"And what does your imprint tell you?"-_

The dinosaur looked over to Azusa, who caught the glance and chuckled at the amusing sight of Io dangling off his face.

"Be careful you two!" she laughed before going back to her work.

The happy sensations rushing through the dinosaur's mind were infectious to the psychic girl, but it didn't take a psychic to understand what the happy cooing and slight wag in his tail meant.

_-"Imprint say, she am mother."-_

Io giggled and climbed up on her friend's head to sit on his snout, knowing he'd keep himself level so she wouldn't fall off. She patted his brow and beamed.

_-"Mother, momma, parent, she's aaaall that! And you're her kid. Way too cool to be a pet."-_

The dinosaur crooned slightly and blinked, tapping at his arm.

_-"Cool? Am not cold."_

_-"Manner of speech."-_

A grunt was her only reply as he lowered back to the ground. Io dusted her skirt off and looked up at her friend, happy to see his spirits back to their usual, happy-go-lucky self. Though a question did linger as he glanced about and tilted his head.

_-"Have mother. Where father?"-_

Io shrugged and went back to her book.

_-"I dunno, I don't have a mother though and I don't think I'll get one. So I guess we're even."-_

Back in Tokyo, Yuki Ichinose was coming back into the Bridgestone airwaves HQ with several loads of take-out clogging her arms and hands. Had been a bit of a dry week up until now at the news broadcast and print station, but the surge of activity by Godzilla, developments at Kyoto's Biotechnics institute's Mechagodzilla and Garuda projects, and some loony named Dr. Malcolm talking about dinosaurs in Costa Rica had flooded their channels. As much a reporter as she was a photographer, she'd been in quite a few tight spots before. Not exactly a fearless camerawoman, but she had managed to get a tiger and more than a few equally ferocious politicians to mug for the camera.

But after a piece covering an up-close look at Biollante and Godzilla in 1989 that got some of the few public stills of the plant monster's final form, a piece that got her hired to Bridgestone, her career had slowed. Her more organized business attire she had to wear and standard short haircut made her look a lot older than she really was. She was already getting 'Old Maid' jokes and the fact she'd taken on an apprentice intern didn't help. Still, she supposed it wasn't all bad. Better than a not-to-be-named, "prestigious" news station calling her a "Delinquent 22 year old with a camera" back in 1989. So what if she likely… definitely trespassed onto a military operation to snag those pictures. Those pictures weren't going to take themselves!

"Alright so we got that interview with Dr. Malcolm this week," the younger redhead intern, Yuri Tachibana, getting the door for her muttered as she checked a PDA, "How likely do you think it is that he's telling the truth?"

"About a park full of cloned dinosaurs in Costa Rica? Sounds like work of a sci-fi writer or an attention-craving imbecile. Who knows, it wouldn't be the first time something weird happened and there was a cover up," Yuki grunted while trying to keep her balance. An odd ringing sensation was coming into her head and giving her very mild vertigo.

"Cover up?" Yuri's eyes twinkled and she bobbed up and down slightly in excitement.

"I just know InGen is up to something weird and I have a hunch it's related, same week he came out about it I got some letter asking if I was available in the next few years."

"Really?! What did you say?"

Yuki shrugged, "That I had my hands full with an intern and if they wanted a photographer or nature guide, I pointed them to some old acquaintances. Paladecki and Van Owen. On more concrete topic away from possible imbecile chaoticians, think your father can get us clearance to see the known dinosaur in Kyoto?"

Yuri Tachibana, daughter of a well respected G-Force commander, sniggered and shrunk her head down, "Ehehe, Iiii make no promises."

"Well be sure to as-aaa-aaaaCHOOO! AACHOOO! AAAAA-"

Yuki convulsed, the ringing in her head growing louder and for a moment she thought she felt some wisp of a voice between her ears as a fit of sneezes over took her. Evidently someone had just tempted fate very hard because she was spewing out one every second so badly Yuri had to scramble to both grab the food and grab her before both went down the stairs.

_-"But if you're her kid you need to stop getting called 'Baby'. You're way too big to be a baby, and Gojo-sensei says you grow up quick so you wouldn't stay one anyways."-_

Io, dropping herself back onto the ground and landing on her toes, rubbed at her chin while the dinosaur sat himself down.

_-"Do you have anything you'd like for a name?"-_

He just shrugged and shook his head.

_-"You have name Io, so you know more about names."-_

Well she couldn't fault that logic but she was pulling up blanks. Back to the books it was then to try and get something. Subject of the page was adjectives and it helped Io was combing through her memories regarding the creature her father was studying.

_-"How about Minilla?"-_

The dinosaur straightened up and tilted his head, shifting forward and lowering his head down to look at the page. Io pointed to an image of a large horse and a miniature horse.

_-"See? These are horses, but this one is a normal pony."-_

She tapped at the smaller equine.

_-"And this is my little pony, a Miiniiiiature pony. Mini means little."-_

_-"What's 'illa'?"-_

Pulling out a few pictures from her backpack, Io brought out a copy of one her father had made regarding his research material. Ironically, one of Yuki's pictures from 1989. She held it over a puddle of water and motioned for him to look down at both so he could compare himself too it.

_-"This is a big beast named Godzilla. The 'illa' part comes from him."-_

The child dinosaur inspected the picture and looked his reflection over. Differences were present to be sure, but he did pick up on some similarities. Pronounced canine fangs, dorsal plates even if his were just nubs, four fingered hands, claws, scales. He tilted his noggin.

_-"I am like him?"-_

Io patted his cheek.

_-"Well, maybe only same type of thing. You seem a lot nicer. So do you like the name? Could make it more… name'y, how about Minya?"-_

The dinosaur straightened up from tensed muscles and rapidly shook his head.

_-"No. No. No. Bad name! Bad name!"-_

He grunted in a manner akin to a donkey, causing Io to have a small laughing fit despite her trying to cover her mouth.

Azusa looked over from her work and smiled happily. Io and the baby were having a disagreement of sorts, that much she could tell, but nothing to be concerned with. Just playful back and forth between friends as Io struggled to stop laughing and the dinosaur hovered over her with a scrunched up face while stamping his feet in a tantrum. The transformation they'd made over the time they'd spent was astounding, and she couldn't be happier for it. And apparently she wasn't the only one fond of seeing it.

A familiar single father sighed contently, having just walked in but making no motion towards the daughter he'd come to pick up, instead pacing over to Azusa and offering her a soda.

"Really know how to treat a lady, don't you Yugi?" Azusa giggled while pulling her tired coworker out a chair.

Yugi, the bags under his eyes smaller than from when their arrangement had started, chuckled and sat back, "Asuka always said I had a way with the fairer sex. I'm so cool around them I've managed to land a grand total of zero dates in sixteen years."

Azusa raised an eyebrow, "Sixteen? But Io's only eight-"

"Asuka was the one to ask me out, she never was one for customs," Yugi corrected dryly before sipping his drink, "Ahg, I can't profess to minding too much. I mourned my wife and know she'd want me to be happy, but between my workload and raising Io, I wouldn't have much time anyways. Plus something I'd be doing it for is already fulfilled."

"And what might that be?"

Yugi Shinoda nodded to the little girl having a mental argument with a dinosaur that resulted in her jumping onto his face and hugging it as he shook it back and forth to try and dislodge her; but thankfully in a gentle manner that told Yugi not to worry. He nodded towards Azusa.

"Single parenting can work fine but I'd want to make sure Io had a good role model, even if it's passively. Someone smart to encourage her to study, kind to encourage her to care, and brave to encourage her will to be strong," he hummed.

"Sounds like a fairy tale," Azusa noted while cracking open her can and taking a drink.

"Well guess you'd know because it's been you so far."

Azusa nearly spat her drink back out before looking over at his smile. It was warm, even on that tired face; free of suggestive nature and echoing one single thought. Gratitude.

"You've got a PhD, so you're definitely smart. You're easily one of the kindest people in this building," Yugi noted while extending a finger with each point, "And how many gals, or even guys you think would have the guts to walk around a multi-hundred kilogram dinosaur without an ounce of fear? She's certainly picked up on it, look afraid to you?"

Azusa gazed up at the sight before her and her heart melted. The dinosaur was laying on his side and back, leg and tail shaking as Io 'won' their confrontation by savagely attacking his ticklish spot on his stomach and chin. Finally ceasing, she squealed and rubbed her head against the snout that nuzzled her head. With elated visages upon them both, they eagerly marched back to the books.

She didn't know what she was prouder of more. The fact Io had changed from a shrinking wallflower who barely socialized with anyone to an energetic, if a bit sassy given her vocabulary, young assistant; or that her charge was more excited, happy, and eager than ever before but not once had let his strength or size cause a lapse in judgement. He'd been gentle as a lamb the entire time Io had been around. And now they were chirping and looking at each other and the book, doing so in such a way it was clear they were having a conversation of sorts.

Her smile grew and she had to wipe something out of her eye before it trickled out, "Hehe, I wonder what they're saying to each other?"

Yugi chuckled, "Let's give em another ten or fifteen minutes and ask before I take Io back home. Deal?"

His offered soda can was tapped by Azusa's.

"Deal, and cheers."

And when it was time for the playdate to end, it was actually the kids who marched up to the edge of the paddock with a very pleased look on their face. Io, who had been riding on the dinosaur's shoulders, tapped on his head and signaled him to lower down. Dismounting, she walked up to her parent and 'boss', stopping to click her heels and stand at attention. Crossing her arms behind her back, the little hybrid piped up.

"Father, Sensei, we have been working… on a name! And… We have one. Not an imbecile name-"

Yugi grunted, still wondered where or who she'd picked up that word.

"-not a bad name... But a good name! A correct name! Because he looks like someone but smaller and cuter. Kinda like how my gran-gran calls me 'Asuka-Junior' because I look like her,"

Yugi stiffened for a moment, but soon any pain ebbed in pride. If his late wife could see their daughter right now, confident and proud, and especially compared favorably to her; she'd be giving Io resounding applause and try to take her and her friend out for ice cream.

"So in honor of my mom and so he can grow big and strong like the other guy," Io closed her eyes and held her head up prim and proper as she motioned to her compatriot.

"Iiiintroduce yourself!"

The dinosaur stepped forward, raised up, and let out a loud chirp. Azusa and Yugi found themselves awkwardly glancing at one another, the former soon having to hide a snicker while Yugi scratched the back of his head.

"Eheh, translation Io? Sounds like a name you two are proud of but we didn't quite catch it."

Io cracked an eye open, "Is that so?... Oh. Ahem."

She wound up her arms and gave it her best introduction picture, "Ladies and gentlemen, meeeeet Junior!"

The same chirp was called out, evidently him trying to pronounce his name with a throat and mouth that was wholly unsuited for it.

"Oh, he doesn't want to be called 'Baby' or 'Little One' anymore?" Azusa quipped with a snigger on her face as she reached up and patted her charge on the head.

The dinosaur, Junior, grunted and nodded partially… before promptly shaking his head and muttering several chirps and groans. Azusa glanced to Io for a translation while the little girl was walking up to have her hand taken in by her father's.

Io just snickered, "Oh you can still, but just you-"

Junior happily cooed and nuzzled Azusa's shoulder and arm, Io translating the rest of what he just said.

"-because you're his mom, of course, he called you that!"

Azusa felt stilled even as the Shinoda's departed, only feeling the dinosaur press up against her and hearing him utter the same series of cooes over and over again. She had inclinations, both when her mentor told her the egg imprinted on her voice and when it was discovered the dinosaur was sapient or very close to it. But this confirmation… He really did consider her his mother, not just an imprint. He was obviously smart enough to know he wasn't human and that didn't matter.

It took a bit to process and she could only hone in on the cooing sound he kept making. Even without Io to translate, she was quickly figuring out what that particular noise meant he was saying. This time she raised no hand to wipe the happy tear out of her eye, using both arms to embrace and rub the saurian acting so affectionate to her.

For the first time as a fully fledged, proud parent, her brown eyes looked into his burnt golden orbs as the mother beheld her son.

"... Hehe, my little boy," she whispered, rubbing his cheek before leaning up on her tiptoes and kissing his forehead.

Io, holding onto her father's hand as they started to turn away from the hallway leading to the paddock, flashed a thumbs up.

In a later time, Junior lowered himself as far as he could, waiting for the little weight to climb onto his shoulders and collar before rising up. Io grinned and held onto her friend's scutes and jokingly kicked his collar with her heel.

_-"Giddy-up!"-_

Riding the dinosaur through the safety doors to the paddock chamber, Io was having the time of her life for a good minute until she heard the sounds of clicking footsteps coming down a perpendicular hall.

_-"To the wall, to the wall!"-_

He beckoned telepathically and thankfully Junior heeded her advice.

It was fortunate Yuki Ichinose had her head down while adjusting her camera when she turned the corner. Or else she might have glimpsed a white haired girl and her saurian companion pressed up against the wall before the latter could project the image of the wall and hallway on top of them. Shaking her head mildly from the ringing she heard in the back of it and chalking it up to a headache, the photographer opted to write it off as a headache and muttering to herself.

"Okaaay, Yuri's talking with her dad and should go well, only got an hour or so before most staff get out of their meeting an-APH!"

She suddenly found her balance yanked away and her face falling forwards towards the ground. Her camera fired off and flashed multiple times due to her finger clutching the button. It was only some practice and experience from past tumbles she'd taken with her camera out due to tripping over something not visible in the viewfinder she managed to curl around and avoid landing on her camera. Groaning from the shock in her shoulders, Yuki gripped her head with her good hand and shook it to try and dispel the vertigo.

Thankfully, while she couldn't see what caused her to fall while she gathered herself up, she did gain some familiarity when she heard the standard click-clack of a particular pair of shoes. A bob of red hair came around the corner as Yuri, having heard the shout, came to her mentor's aid.

"You okay, senpai?" She quipped while darting over to help Yuki fully up, "I got my father to give us free passes to low clearance zones and an interview with Captain Pentecost."

Yuki grunted, "Yuri be careful there's something slipper-"

"YEEP!"

It thankful she was already coming towards Yuki when she fell over too, or else Yuki might not have been able to catch her.

"-ry…." Yuki deadpanned as she avoided tumbling over despite Yuri crashing into her due to bracing, "Tried to warn you."

Yuri groaned, thankful to be caught and rising back up with her friend, she jiggled her foot after feeling a tingling sensation like she'd stubbed it on something, "I-I don't think I slipped. I tripped over something!"

Yuki stole a glance behind her, "Tile maybe? There's nothing there."

They both froze when they hard a low chirp, like a massive bird. After looking at each other for a moment or two, their eyes wandered to find the absent source. Yuri's eyes trained upon a section of wall near where both she and Yuri had taken a tumble. She lowered her brow and looked at it more intensely, wondering why was the back of her head ringing. Thinking it was the headache coming on again, likely not helped by her tumble or getting her camera flash in her face multiple times, she closed her eyes and shook her head. Sure enough when she opened them, the blurry spot on the wall was gone.

_-Huh, odd…-_

Yuri's exasperated groan soon took her attention away however.

"Aaaaah! Crap I left the passes with my father! I was so eager to run off and find you I totally bolted on him," Yuri groaned while slapping her forehead with her hand.

Yuki's previous confusion left and was replaced with a mix of mild annoyance, but much more humored understanding as she patted her protege's shoulder, "Rookie mistake Tachibana, but you are still a rookie. Go on and get them, I'll wait here."

"Y-Yes, sorry!" she hastily bowed before running back into the intersection. A loud, feminine yelp sounding off soon after told Yuki she'd managed to trip again.

"Caaareful!" she called out with a hidden chuckle, "Seems to be a problem in this hall."

Turning her focus back to the camera, she groaned at seeing the display reading she'd managed to snap twenty useless photographs in her fumble due to her finger jamming the snap button. Wishing she could do this by group, Yuki checked the basic interface and started deleting them all one by one. Just what she expected, blurry, undefined images of her feet, the floor, the ceiling, something vaguely resembling her arm and hair. At least for the first eight pictures. But on the ninth she noticed something.

A dark gray-blue blur underneath and behind her feet, laying across the ground.

The next few pictures showed the same, undefinable mass; but piece by piece they started to show something it was connected to which was up against the wall and much larger. It was the last picture that, out of sheer dumb luck, had focused on something behind Yuki's flailing hair. Pressed up against the wall was a wide eyed, white haired girl in twintails with black veins across her face… standing on top of an equally startled looking dinosaur who's tail had been apparently what Yuki and Yuri had tripped on. And apparently they had been invisible.

"What… the fuck..."

"Language!" A tiny voice piped up from around the corner.

Io, drilled into saying that on impulse by her father, promptly shoved half her hand into her mouth. Yuki was so flummoxed she didn't move for a solid few seconds, only hearing the sounds of loud shuffling quickly rushing away from behind the corner.


End file.
